The last ten years have witnessed an enormous growth in employee ownership. Between two and three percent of the workforce now participates in an employee ownership plan and at least 250 firms are majority employee owned. Several studies of these firms suggest that they enjoy both greater economic and psychological success, but other studies are more ambivalent. There is far too little research, however, to draw any firm conclusions. This growth has enormous potential, however, for it can give employees the opportunity to shape their work to meet their own economic and psychological needs, as well as to provide a sense of identification and pride even in those jobs that cannot be made very interesting. In so doing, it can succeed where other work reform efforts, largely imposed from outside the firm, have failed. Moreover, employee ownership has proven to be an extremely successful, cost-effective method of saving jobs, both through employee buyouts of firms that would otherwise close and through maintaining higher profit levels at ongoing firms. By addressing both job design and job security, employee ownership may well be able to reduce job stress significantly and thus improve mental health. While employee ownership has this potential, it is far too new a phenomenon to know exactly what attributes of companies or ownership plans are most likely to lead to success. The amount of stock owned by employees, the kind of plan, the opportunity to participate in job or management decisions, the size of the company, the use of profit-sharing or productivity bonus plans, and similar variables all need to be analyzed in order to provide employee ownership companies with the information they need to make optimal choices in implementing their plans. This project is designed to gather this information through an extensive series of in-depth case studies. The results will be analyzed for academic, business (employer and employee) and governmental audiences, and disseminated through the National Center for Employee Ownership, a national membership organization. The Center's goal, ultimately, is to provide the informational resources that can allow employee ownership to make the fullest contribution possible to the well-being of those who work.